Overview of Recent Researches on the Meaning of Relativity

Leonardo Motta, lmotta@socrates.if.usp.br

Rua Dr. Artur Neiva, 230. V Universitaria. Sao Paulo, SP. Brazil.

05359-200

The theory of relativity its usually thought as 'untouchable'

well-established fact by persons that are not acquainted with it wider

than usual physics textbooks. This view is far away from truth. Since 

the birth of relativity the critic study of it never ceased, and it would 

be illogic to think otherwise, misapprehending the skeptical research with 

the religious dream.

For example, much have been discussed on the meaning of the constant 

'c'.  In 1905, Sommerfeld demonstrated that although v > c were apparently

prohibited by Lorentz transformations, in Maxwell's electrodynamics 

this is perfectly possible. Such result was explorer and expanded in quantum

electrodynamics, notably by R. P. Feynman and J. A. Wheeler who 

introduced superluminal (i.e., faster than light) virtual processes to interpret

fundamental features of Nature like foton exchange and anti-matter [1],

[2]. In quantum optics it has been measured signals in the order of 10c 

in total reflection experiments [3], [4] and even 300c in atomic mediums 

[5]!  We know that many galaxies emit apparent superluminal particles jets 

[6].  In some superstring models, solutions known as "tachyonics" emerge

naturally [7]. 

In opposition to what seems, all this results are perfectly compatibles 

with relativity. In fact, some of them emerge from the theory itself! 

Einstein and his colleague Natan Rosen, exploiting Schwarzschild black-hole 

model, found the first v > c solution on the domain of General Relativity. The

Einstein-Rosen bridges, as we call them, were largely studied by

physicists like Kip Thorne, Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, in such 

a manner that today we have many 'time travel machines'. Not less famous 

is the result of J. S. Bell that generalizes the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen

(EPR) paradox, allowing time-travel in the domain of quantum mechanics

[2], [8]. This last result lead the Romanian physicist and 

mathematician Florentin Smarandache to develop a theory that allows 

arbitrarily large velocities [9], see also the Smarandache hypothesis.

With so many experimental results and theoretical insights apparently

against the idea that 'c' is a limit in Nature, it is famous the current

academic discussion of the meaning of 'c'. Some allege relativity breaks 

in face of such results [10], but these are left in a delicate situation

because the basic premise from where relativity is developed, that the

"rest" and uniform rectilinear motion are indistinguishable, is not a

principle that one arrives from hard and long thought, rather is an

experimental fact (being the Michelson-Morley experiment the most 

famous, but not the only one!).

Nowadays, the discussion of relativity is taken over all journals of 

The world and envelopes many physicists over Princeton, Cambridge,

Latin America, East European, India, Berkeley, China, Japan; at last, the 

whole globe. There is still much to learn from it, and maybe this 

understanding will come from our future deeper view on the world machinery, 

the fundamental forces, beyond the physics solid established today.

References:

[1]: Feynman, R. P. "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter",

Princeton Univ. Press (1998).

[2]: Herbert, N. "Faster than Light", New Am. Trade (1995).

[3]: Nimtz, G. Ann. Phys., 7 (1998), no. 8, p. 618. 

[4]: Chiao, R. Phys. Lett., A246: 19-25 (1998).

[5]: Wang, J. L. et al. Nature 406, 277-279 (20/06/2000).

[6]: e.g. NASA's site:

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast11jun97_1.htm

[7]: 'Tachyon' comes from the greek, 'tachys', meaning swift. Some 

models are cut so they do not have 'tachyonic modes' that could explain, 

for instance, dark matter.

[8]: Thorne, K. "Black Holes and time warps": W. W. Norton & Comp. 

(1996)

[9]: Smarandache, F. "There is no speed barrier in the Universe". Bull. 

of Pure & App. Sci., Delhi, India, Vol. 17D, N.1, p.61 (1998); also at:

http://fs.unm.edu/NoSpLim.htm

[10]: See for instance Rodrigues, Jr. W. A., Maiorino, J. E., Random 

Oper. & Stoch. Equ., vol. 4, 355-400 (1996), physics/9710030; Recami, E.

physics/0109062